Even with cheap gas, motorists have been migrating away from traditional engine choices, and that’s convinced Ford to pump $145 million into the Cleveland Engine Plant producing one of its key alternatives, the 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine used in a variety of models such as the big F-150 pickup.

Ford plans to make the turbocharged engine – which serves as an alternative to traditional V-8s – available on a wider line-up of vehicles in the coming years. It’s taking a similar approach with other members of the EcoBoost family which include engines as small as a 1.0-liter 3-cylinder package.

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“Ford customers have embraced EcoBoost’s unbeatable combination of power and efficiency, with more than 60% of F-150 customers choosing trucks powered by EcoBoost,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford President of The Americas Joe Hinrichs, said in a statement.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally plants a kiss on one of the maker's increasingly popular EcoBoost engines.

Is the conventional, or normally aspirated, gasoline engine on its way out? It’s starting to look more and more like it as manufacturers adopt alternatives such as battery-electric vehicles and turbocharged gas and diesel powertrains.

In fact, Volkswagen appears to be set on a course to go all turbo over the next several years, according to a senior executive, while Ford is on a similar route, the company noted as it marked the production of the two-millionth vehicle equipped with its turbocharged EcoBoost technology.

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“You have to have a turbo these days,” Marc Trahan, an executive vice president with Volkswagen of America, told the Detroit News. “We only have one normally aspirated gas engine, and when we go to the next generation vehicle that it’s in, it will be replaced. So, three, four years maximum.”